Woman's family call for inquiry into hospital treatment

The family of an intellectually disabled woman who died last April has called for an inquiry into her treatment at St Ita's Psychiatric Hospital in Portrane, Dublin.

Linda Lamb (46) died on April 26th in Beaumont Hospital following a brain haemorrhage.

According to the family, Ms Lamb had been complaining of headaches and dizziness in the days before she was rushed to the hospital, but was not seen by a doctor.

Prior to her death, she was living in St Ita's, under the care of St Joseph's Intellectual Disabilities Services. Ms Lamb had been homeless, and had nine children, all of whom were taken into care. She was given a bed in an open ward at St Ita's in May 2006, after she was attacked and raped in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

According to her sister, Sandra Smith, Ms Lamb was transferred to a high security ward in St Ita's after undergoing treatment at Beaumont Hospital for an aneurism in February 2007.

Ms Lamb and her family believed the accommodation was unsuitable for her and tried to have her moved.

They wrote to the Health Service Executive and to the Ombudsman's office and they commissioned an independent report by psychiatrist Paul McQuaid who "urgently recommended" she be transferred to a more suitable facility.

Ms Smith said she visited her sister at St Ita's on April 15th, 2007. Ms Lamb was dizzy and complained of a headache and Ms Smith said she spoke to a member of staff about it and asked that a doctor see her sister, but she understood no doctor was called.

On April 18th, a friend of Ms Lamb, who also had an intellectual disability, called Ms Smith on a mobile phone from St Ita's.

"He was very distressed and he said Linda was crying with the pains in her head," Ms Smith said. "I told him to find a member of staff quickly and he left the mobile phone on Linda's locker."

He did not end the phone call, Ms Smith said, and the line was still open when a member of staff returned to Ms Lamb's bedside.

According to Ms Smith, she could hear the staff member shouting at her sister, who had vomited on the bedclothes.

That night, Ms Smith got a call from Beaumont Hospital and was told her sister was in the intensive care unit.

She died eight days later. Ms Smith said the family were told in confidence by a member of staff at Beaumont that their sister's brain "was flooded with blood" by the time she reached the hospital. They requested a postmortem examination, but have not yet been given the results.

When contacted, St Ita's Hospital referred inquiries to the HSE. A spokeswoman for the HSE said it had received the family's complaint and would be carrying out an internal inquiry.